Read-Only BLOB (packet) Additions to the IP Protocol An analysis of many packets of data show that the same binary content appears over and over. This is especially the case when a smaller and smaller size BLOB is considered. For example, a 512 byte (octet) BLOB contains 4096 bits (ones or zeroes) and there can be a large number of **unique** BLOBs, in fact, approximately (1.0443888814131525066917527107166e+1233). If users are able to create (own?) any number of the unique BLOBs and then place them in a public cache (library), then new broadband modems can pull those BLOBs in and attach them to packet headers. Since the BLOBS are read-only and never change, once created, they can each have their own IP address as the "source". The destination address is the end-user's system. One obvious BLOB is a 512 byte BLOB of all zeroes. Another obvious one is all ones. Those can be two of the possible BLOBS. If a 32-bit index (handle) is used to specify a unique BLOB, then there can be exactly 4,294,967,296. It might take several BLOBS to hold commonly communicated binary content. Also, several BLOBS may be needed if graphics/voice/sound is recorded vs. text. Compression can be allowed because the BLOB is just 512 bytes of arbitrary ones and zeroes. Also, careful attention to repetition in tones (like dial-tone in VOIP) can result in the same BLOB being used over and over with no clicks or gaps noticed between BLOBs. With that as a bit of an intro, no pun intended, some "Internet Governance" questions come to mind. 1. Who owns the content of the BLOBs ? 2. If it costs $1 dollar (OZ dollars) to "register" a unique BLOB who collects that $4,294,967,296 ? 3. How and where will the BLOBs be cached ? 4. Do the users really care where they come from as long as their broad-band system works "better" ? 5. Are people concerned that the same BLOB may appear over and over, creating boring content ? 6. Are people concerned that a small error could become part of a read-only archive and live for a long time ? 7. As a follow-on to #6, would another BLOB be allowed ? to fix that error ? 8. Is first-come-first-serve the best way to sell off the BLOBs? 9. Should existing archives and databases be encoded first ? at no charge ? 10. Once one BLOB address space is used up, should another be opened up ? 11. Will there be vanity-value in owning a BLOB ? Is the one-millionth BLOB special ? 12. Will BLOBs that can be compressed be favored ? 13. Should there be an age-limit to register a BLOB ? For the curious, the entire BLOB cache would be 2,199,023,255,552 bytes without compression. An ISP can cache the entire BLOB space and do inserts in the last mile of the broad-band connection. The broad-band "modem" can of course cache a working set of the most common BLOBs. Is this bit torrent at the IP level ? http://bittorrent.com/ Jim Fleming A.Net